When this exhibition came out last year, I was fortunate to see it in person at the Otara Fresh Gallery. At the time, I produced a write-up of its exhibits as experiments in Pasifika participatory Storytelling.
“‘Digital Talanoa’ is the concept of getting together and having a conversation but in a modern way, in a digital format, and being able to do it in a way that we’re able to reach people all around the world.... I had a thought about the concept of getting together, so the whole “polydolly” talk concept is literally to get women together.”
- Lanita Rurunui Ryan, Artist
“For me, Digital Talanoa is the conversation between and through digital media. It’s a chance for us artists, we’re all from different backgrounds in terms of different media. We work with the rules, we work with formulas, but this is a chance to get rid of that and speak from the heart and from the soul.”
- Mario Faumui, Artist
“For most, it’s all about what Pacific Islanders love to do....”
Reflecting on my commentary a year ago in combination with what I now know of fagogo, this was an interesting exhibition for two reasons (so far):
1) Its experimental attempts to “translate” and “redefine” the traditional Pasifika forms of oral language and history (“Digital Talanoa,” 2015), which I don’t think it did (perhaps ‘translate’ but not ‘redefine’).
2) How the audience still approach the “talanoa” exhibits in a meta narrative, from the outside looking in on a conversation underway, rather than joining and contributing to the conversation, or influencing its outcome(s).
What this exhibition showcased are the ways we like to hold talanoa (conversations) and the media we’re currently experimenting with to do so. I think Mario raised an interesting point that Pacific artists are trying to disrupt the formulas and methods for these digital media and mediums, but what I don’t see in any of these examples is an explicit disruptive model that draws on fagogo principles that I could emulate. Instead, what this exhibition provides are a sample of opportunities that would still need to be rendered for an online distributed framework.
References
Digital Talanoa. (2015, March 31). Retrieved September 12, 2016, from http://www.tautai.org/digital-talanoa/
